Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
It is election time in Punjab. Every body has started talking about development. The word Development has become a major issue. Election manifestos are painting a rosy picture of a Developed Punjab. But, none of them is kind enough to tell what will be cost of this development? And who …
This paper examines urban health in low- and middle-income countries, in relation to two sets of environmental issues: persistent local environmental health burdens, and most notably the water, sanitation and housing deficiencies prevalent in the poor neighbourhoods of so many urban settlements; and emerging global environmental burdens that will be …
Tubewells have been so popular in rural Bangladesh that about 12 million have been installed, yielding water that is convenient, free and low in bacteria. But every fourth well is polluted with arsenic, with the result that millions of people are exposed to a severe environmental hazard. We explore this …
With nine deaths on May 23, the toll in a cholera epidemic in Angola has gone up to 1,374 , according to who. The outbreak was declared in mid-February this year. Official reports say 38,422 cases have been reported and 12 of Angola's 18 provinces affected. The main cause for …
The largest ever settlement for pollution caused by asbestos was made on May 10, 2006, when the world's largest producer of insulation products agreed to a payout. Owen Corning announced a us $5.2 billion agreement to settle all present and future claims on asbestos damage and to protect itself from …
A large body of epidemiologic literature has found an association of increased fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) with acute and chronic mortality. The effect of improvements in particle exposure is less clear. Earlier analysis of the Harvard Six Cities adult cohort study showed an association between long-term ambient PM2.5 and …
This paper discusses both occupational health risks to workers and environmental health risks to residents and workers. Because worker exposure times are shorter than resident exposure times, some risks may be less for workers than for residents. On the other hand, contaminant levels to which workers are exposed can be …
A degraded environment brings with it a set of health problems - some new and some, which have posed a challenge over the years. Presenting Body Burden, a compilation of reports from Down to Earth on the health impacts of environment pollution in India.
October 21, 2003. High-level corporate lawyers from ChevronTexaco sit in the same packed muggy courtroom as bare-breasted Amazonian men and women at the start of what the media calls "The Trial of the Century.' In the ramshackle Amazonian town of Lago Agrio, the oil Titan stands accused of severely contaminating …
Every year Indian thermal power plants (TPPs) spew out 100 million tonnes of flyash, a grey outpour soon expected to reach 175 million tonnes. According to current estimates nearly one lakh hectares (ha) of land in India is taken up by ash ponds. Bad news for the environment. For, most …
a unique lawsuit was filed in the us two months ago . The state of Rhode Island indicted eight paint manufacturers for risking citizens' health by exposing them to lead via household paints. Lead is used as a pigment in paints. It also enhances their consistency and durability. Lead usage …
INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH . November . 2002 NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 saw bombing of many factories. The world media covered the campaign extensively. And then suddenly there was a hush. The eerie silence has been broken now by a new report by the Washington-based …
Many workers who cleared debris from the site of the World Trade Centre attack of September 11, 2001 are showing symptoms of acute respiratory diseases, according to a health assessment conducted by the us-based Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The investigators believe the respiratory problems may be associated …
Associations have been found between day-to-day particulate air pollution and increased risk of various adverse health outcomes, including cardiopulmonary mortality. However, studies of health effects of long-term particulate air pollution have been less conclusive. To assess the relationship between long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution and all-cause, lung cancer, …
The Union ministry of environment and forests recently held a symposium on environmental health. Sadly, nothing emerged from the initiative, well-intended though it might have been. Here was an opportunity to meet the challenge posed by the double burden of diseases and a deteriorating environment by involving our medical community
"too small, too slow, or too poorly rooted.' This is how the recently released 19th annual edition of Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2002 report describes the steps taken in the 1990s for an ecologically resilient world. Considering the dismal scenario, the document recommends "a global war on poverty …
communicable diseases cause 20-25 per cent of deaths annually worldwide. And poor environmental conditions are the perfect breeding ground for these contagions. This indissoluble link, showing how ecological imbalances can be hazardous to health, has been brought forth in the
even as the controversy generated by Gujarat's highly polluting Alang shipbreaking yard refuses to die down, Andhra Pradesh is clearing the decks for a similar unit to be located in its fragile coastal belt. The proposal for the yard at Vodarevu near Chirala of Prakasam district was given the technical …
Take a look around, if the roadside sign "stop pollution' is too hazy to read, it's because the government, indusry and the public are to blame. The government will not tax the polluting vehicles, the industry won't innovate and the public will not ask for its right to clean air. …
